Leap second failure

Two clocks compared during the last leap second event on 2005. The radio clock tuned to DCF77 did not reflect the leap second at 00:00 UTC nor at 00:00 local time. Is this a bug in the radio clock?

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• radio
• clock
• leap
• second
• dcf77
• gps

[jorcol99]

Thanks for clarifying this. I thought the radio clock would update itself continuously, or at least at every exact hour, so I was surprised to see that it didn't. As you point out, the day after it was synchronised but I don't know exactly when it added the leap second.

The radio clock was set to CET, but I wasn't sure if it would sync at 00:00 UTC or 00:00 CET, so I filmed both transitions, just in case.

Thanks!

[lesorciercalifornien]

The radio-controlled clock probably sets itself only a few times a day, and midnight fell in between settings; it no doubt corrected itself at the next setting. The GPS updates continually, and although not being able to display :60 in the seconds field, it did the next best thing and paused for one second at 00:59:59. (I take it the DCF-77 clock is set to UTC rather than Central European Time?)